diff --git a/flow-state/gallery.html b/flow-state/gallery.html
index 6c56f5c..ec61e19 100644
--- a/flow-state/gallery.html
+++ b/flow-state/gallery.html
@@ -47,8 +47,10 @@
     .name { font-size: 14px; color: #e6eaf2; }
     .fam { color: #6b7280; }
     .score { color: #9aa3b5; }
-    .meter { display: inline-block; width: 130px; height: 7px; background: #1a1e28; border-radius: 4px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: middle; }
-    .meter i { display: block; height: 100%; background: #4ade80; }
+    .meter { position: relative; display: inline-block; width: 130px; height: 7px; background: #1a1e28; border-radius: 4px; vertical-align: middle; }
+    .meter i { display: block; height: 100%; background: #4ade80; border-radius: 4px 0 0 4px; }
+    /* The bar, on every meter, so a row can be read on its own. */
+    .meter b { position: absolute; top: -2px; bottom: -2px; width: 2px; background: #ef4444; }
     .row.flat .meter i { background: #ef4444; }
     .row.thin .meter i { background: #eab308; }
     .blocks { color: #5c6577; font-size: 11px; }
@@ -57,6 +59,11 @@
     .thumbs canvas { width: 100%; display: block; background: #05070a; border-radius: 2px; aspect-ratio: 16 / 9; }
     .thumbs figcaption { font-size: 10px; color: #565f70; margin-top: 3px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; }
     .err { color: #f87171; }
+    .cutline { position: relative; border-top: 2px solid #ef4444; margin: 26px 0 24px; }
+    .cutline span {
+        position: absolute; top: -9px; left: 12px; background: #0b0d12;
+        padding: 0 8px; color: #ef4444; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: .04em;
+    }
     @media (max-width: 1100px) { .thumbs { grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr); } }
 </style>
 </head>
@@ -87,7 +94,7 @@
     <div id="out"></div>
 
 <script type="module">
-import { buildGallery, galleryContexts, THUMB } from '/src/checks/gallery.js';
+import { buildGallery, galleryContexts, THUMB, MIN_VARIETY } from '/src/checks/gallery.js';
 import {
     sourceFingerprint, loadGallery, saveGallery, clearGallery,
     pixelsToBlob, blobToCanvas,
@@ -103,7 +110,9 @@ const rebuildBtn = document.getElementById('rebuild');
 let rows = [];        // { name, family, role, variety, byBlock, blobs, error }
 let contexts = [];
 
-const grade = (v) => (v < 0.05 ? 'flat' : v < 0.10 ? 'thin' : 'good');
+// Graded against the bar rather than against taste: below it is a failure, and
+// the band just above it is where a scene is passing by too little to trust.
+const grade = (v) => (v < MIN_VARIETY ? 'flat' : v < MIN_VARIETY * 2 ? 'thin' : 'good');
 
 function draw() {
     const mode = sortSel.value;
@@ -113,7 +122,17 @@ function draw() {
         : a.variety - b.variety));
 
     out.innerHTML = '';
+    let drewCut = false;
     for (const row of sorted) {
+        // One line across the whole gallery, where the sort crosses the bar.
+        // Everything above it repeats itself between songs.
+        if (mode === 'variety' && !drewCut && row.variety >= MIN_VARIETY) {
+            drewCut = true;
+            const cut = document.createElement('div');
+            cut.className = 'cutline';
+            cut.innerHTML = `<span>minimum variety ${MIN_VARIETY.toFixed(3)} — everything above repeats itself between songs</span>`;
+            out.appendChild(cut);
+        }
         const el = document.createElement('div');
         el.className = `row ${grade(row.variety)}`;
         const blocks = Object.entries(row.byBlock || {})
@@ -123,7 +142,7 @@ function draw() {
                 <span class="name">${row.name}</span>
                 <span class="fam">${row.family}${row.role === 'accent' ? ' · accent' : ''}</span>
                 <span class="score">
-                    <span class="meter"><i style="width:${Math.min(100, row.variety * 500)}%"></i></span>
+                    <span class="meter"><i style="width:${Math.min(100, row.variety * 500)}%"></i><b style="left:${MIN_VARIETY * 500}%" title="minimum ${MIN_VARIETY}"></b></span>
                     ${row.variety.toFixed(3)}
                 </span>
                 <span class="blocks">${row.error ? `<span class="err">${row.error}</span>` : blocks}</span>
@@ -150,8 +169,8 @@ function draw() {
 sortSel.addEventListener('change', draw);
 
 function summarise(built) {
-    const flat = rows.filter((r) => r.variety < 0.05).length;
-    return `${rows.length} scenes · ${flat} barely change across songs` +
+    const flat = rows.filter((r) => r.variety < MIN_VARIETY).length;
+    return `${rows.length} scenes · ${flat} below the ${MIN_VARIETY} bar` +
         (built ? ` · built ${new Date(built).toLocaleString()}` : '');
 }
 
@@ -170,33 +189,26 @@ async function build(fingerprint) {
         .map((c) => `<span title="${c.identity}">${c.name}</span>`).join('');
 
     const started = Date.now();
-    const built = await buildGallery({
+    await buildGallery({
         contexts,
-        onScene: (done, total, name) => {
+        onScene: async (done, total, name, row) => {
             status.textContent = `rendering ${done}/${total} · ${name}`;
             progress.style.width = `${(done / total) * 100}%`;
+            // Show rows as they land. The caching rewrite moved every draw to
+            // the end, which left three minutes of spinner and nothing to look
+            // at — and the first scenes are the interesting ones, since the
+            // sort puts the repetitive ones on top.
+            rows.push({
+                name: row.module.name, family: row.module.family,
+                role: row.module.role || 'stage', variety: row.variety,
+                byBlock: row.byBlock, error: row.error,
+                blobs: await Promise.all(row.thumbs.map(
+                    (px) => pixelsToBlob(px, THUMB.width, THUMB.height))),
+            });
+            if (done % 8 === 0 || done === total) draw();
         },
     });
 
-    status.textContent = 'compressing…';
-    await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 0));
-    rows = [];
-    for (const row of built) {
-        const blobs = [];
-        for (const pixels of row.thumbs) {
-            blobs.push(await pixelsToBlob(pixels, THUMB.width, THUMB.height));
-        }
-        rows.push({
-            name: row.module.name,
-            family: row.module.family,
-            role: row.module.role || 'stage',
-            variety: row.variety,
-            byBlock: row.byBlock,
-            error: row.error,
-            blobs,
-        });
-    }
-
     const payload = {
         fingerprint,
         built: Date.now(),
diff --git a/flow-state/src/checks/gallery.js b/flow-state/src/checks/gallery.js
index da0d487..b2801fb 100644
--- a/flow-state/src/checks/gallery.js
+++ b/flow-state/src/checks/gallery.js
@@ -28,6 +28,20 @@ import { descriptorDistance, STRUCTURAL } from './variety/signature.js';
 
 const THUMB = { width: 256, height: 144 };
 
+/**
+ * The floor a visualizer has to clear: how different its own six frames must be
+ * from each other, across six songs' identities.
+ *
+ * Below this a scene is the same picture wherever it appears, and because it is
+ * cast into many songs that repetition leaks between them — the viewer who
+ * watches two videos recognises the shot rather than the song. It is a property
+ * of the scene, not of the generator, so it is the scene that has to be lifted.
+ *
+ * 0.04 is a starting bar rather than a derived one. Set where the flat cluster
+ * measurably sits, to be raised as scenes are brought up to it.
+ */
+export const MIN_VARIETY = 0.04;
+
 /**
  * Six contexts, one per song: everything a scene is handed when it is cast.
  *